MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS ON CONIFERE. 887 
article, illustrated by a plate. After reviewing the different theories and erasers enunciated since Robert Brown’s 
time, he dwells emphatically on the great importance of the study of the morphoses (i ls those monstrosities 
which are the result of retrograde metamorphosis, in contradistinction ae mere pathological alterations) and of the 
teachings they convey. He comes to the conclusion that these are a much safer guide than the microscopic study of 
the genesis of the organs, which has often misled those who too implicitly relied on its teachings. Investigating the 
anamorphoses of the Norway Spruce, he finds the two lateral carpellary leaves distinctly indicated and more or less 
separated and developed. In more evolved cases an anterior and then a posterior bract make 
Professor Eichler had taken for a third and fourth lobe of his ligula. 
posterior bract is the third and the anterior the fourth in order. Celakovsky comes to the ang that, at [234] 
least in Abietinee, Eichler’s theory — that the carpellary scale is a mere emergence or ligule of t 
quite wrong, and that Mohl’s view (1871)!— that the carpellary scale of these plants consists se the two yen 
lowest leaves of an axillary, otherwise undeveloped, bud connate at their upper edge and peeetg the ovules on their 
back, — is amply vindicated by all known morphological facts and is antagonistic to none of ther 
He further concedes that the same explanation may possibly be the true one for all pero and that all morpho- 
logists who have treated this question thus far, have, whatever their views, assumed a conformity in this respect in all 
the tribes of conifers, and a complete homology of their female organs. But he thinks that this is not necessarily so, 
and that Sachs’ and Eichler’s emergence or ligular theory may be true as to Araucarica, and that thus the cone of these 
plants is really and truly a single flower. In reyard to Taxodineew and Cupressinee he is convinced that an inner fruit 
scale really exists, completely adnate to the bract and soon outgrowing it, but he does not venture to pronounce on its 
nature, because he thus far has no ocular demonstration of it through any anamorphosis.? Professor Celakovsky con- 
cludes that the arillus of Taxacee corresponds with the ligula of Araweariee. He speaks of the terminal position of 
the ovule in this tribe as of very little morphological importance, being really a lateral ovule pushed to the top of an 
axis.§ 
ill be of interest to those who have been misled by contrary statements, to learn that that O. Heer, the cele- 
brated phyto-paleontologist, has shown that geologically Abietinee and Taxodinee are the oldest conifers now known, 
appearing already in the Carboniferous period, while Araucariee come up much later in the Trias and Jurassic forma- 
tions. But relative geological age of the different tribes of plants is of much less importance for the appreciation of 
their degree of development and their position in the system than some suppose. Thus the bil the phee- 
nogams most closely allied to the vascular cryptogams, are, as Professor Heer states, very uncertain in the Car- [235] 
boniferons, and make their decided appearance first in the Permian rocks : therefore much later jaa the higher 
developed conifers. — Amer. Journ. Sct. and Arts, 3d Series, vol. xxiv, 1882; Bot. Gazette, vol. vii. pp. 104-105. 
PINUS SEROTINA, OR PINES THE CONES OF WHICH OPEN LATE, OFTEN LONG AFTER MATURITY. 
Michaux was the first to notice that the cones of a certain pine of the Southeastern States “arrive at [125] 
maturity the second year, but do not release their seeds before the third or fourth,” and he therefore named it 
P. serotina, It is now thought that this tree is scarcely distinct from the northern P. rigida, and I have seen specimens 
of the latter in which, also, some cones rem: s closed after maturity. The same fact has been observed by Dr. 
Chapman in a pine of Appalachicola, which he doubtfully referred to P. inops. Though its much more slender and 
delicate leaves also distinguish it from true P. ev pa — character is the same as in that species, so that we 
are — in introducing it as P. inops, var. clausa, Chapm 
re, then, we have two northern pines, southern Soe of which show this “ serotine” character. But it seems 
not ood known that quite a number of western and of Mexican pines also often open the scales of their cones 
1 It appears now that A. Braun has expressed the same 
view as early as 1842 in the French Congrés scientifique at 
Strasburg, in the report of whose proceedings it is published. 
He often threw out such hints from the rich treasures of his 
investigations, but with characteristic modesty he gave them 
to science without urging them or claiming scientific property 
or priority in arg 
2 The wri s in possession of a proliferous cone 
of Sequoia penitent a whieh seems to prove, not only that the 
fruit-scale in this species (and consequently in the whole tribe) 
is homologous with that of Abiet 
of leaves of an axillary shoot, yet that these leaves are not a 
single pair, but, as A. Braun has long ago suggested, in regard 
ine, in so far as it consists © 
to Cupressinee, that there is a number of leaves, laterally 
érdinate and connate, bearing a number of ovules on their 
It might be well to draw attention to the singular fact, 
that in the allied na pst ay of Gnetacee, the 
female flower (for such it is no 
eGR or utricle being considered as a two-leaved car- 
always referred to as “terminal,” whether single, 
double, or triple, while a terminal organ cannot be otherwise 
The fact is that the female flowers are here 
and, if single, are pushed to the top of the shoot. 
